SHARES IN Monsanto jumped 6 per cent in early New York trade yesterday following reports that the US pharmaceutical giant was in merger talks with its rival DuPont. A deal would create the world's biggest seller of agriculture products, with annual sales of more than $6bn. It would also dominate the market for genetically modified crops, which the UK's market-leader, Zeneca, this week predicted could grow from $33bn today to $700bn by 2020. By then, Zeneca forecast, DuPont would dominate the market with annual sales of $500bn, followed by Monsanto on $100bn.